The Art-Blog of Maria Lombardy

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
-Robert Frost

Fire and Ice (2008), oil on canvas, in the 2008 Spring edition of the Cellar Door

I started painting this from a black and white photograph with a composition I liked. I ended up completely changing it (the composition...the colors were obviously not a part of the black and white photo to start with). About half way through the piece I started thinking about the poem Fire and Ice by Robert Frost. About my world. Not in just a literal way. This piece will appear in the 2009 Spring edition of the Cellar Door.

This was my final project for my 3D class. The assignment was to represent a myth based upon an items in an envelope we received from someone random in another class. My myth is based upon Gunter Grass's book, The Rat. The arch is supposed represent the fairytale, self-delusion, or human hope (whatever you want to call it; Grass ties all three together) that people have constructed in regards to the "forest" and our ability to sustain ourselves after it has been cut down.

EDIT: This is an edit from an older version of myself. You will notice I said that "my myth" when I interpreted the book originally. I did make that bold, but I left the rest (including the part below the pictures) intact. When I first posted this, I was naive enough to assume that it would be clear I was trying to represent an archetype Gunter uses (and he does use it well) and re-interpret the book in a modern way. I am reassessing this blog and now I'm not so sure.

I had recently been exposed to Bloom, a literary theorist who argued that the most powerful and compelling books are always relevant because this is possible. They are convincing. They get under your skin. He convincingly argued that the meaning of art and literature, by definition, can and does change over time. There is constant debate in literature over various meanings and undertones the author intended as well as debate over the meaning something has today. Although I find the archetype I was trying to represent fascinating, I know there is one interpretation of this book I am not behind. In NO WAY do I promote a negative racial comparison in this project. Not at the time and not now.

I read the book and saw an archetype I wanted to interpret in a modern way. Although I did focus on the environment (hopefully this is self-evident by the quotation I burned into the wood), I did want the shape itself to be a respectful monument of the dangers of the very delusion the pied piper represents (i.e. turn a more negative interpretation on it's head...the delusion was, in fact, Facism, not the Jewish people).

I thought about deleting these pictures, but I want to leave them up. That book had a large impact on me, as did creating the project.

The quotation on the sign attached to the arch is burned
into the wood. It reads:
"With all due allowance for skepticism, I cried, we can hope
again. I rejected reality. Listen to me, she-rat, I concluded,
this very day I am going to plant a tree."
-The Rat Gunter Grass

This is the veil I attached to the inside of the arch. It serves to make it impossible to pass through the arch, although it sort of looks like maybe you could. It ends with a small tree, one which we can see but not touch directly. This is a reference to Grass' pied piper motif. The tree is a specific example of the false hope, the illusion that humans continue to cling to. The "fairy tale" that we can just plant a tree and avoid the consequences of our actions. The "pied piper" represents the draw that illusion has over us. Although I read Grass' book because I needed to understand it completely if I was going to even try to represent it through an art project, I ended up being drawn in to the message itself. I've never been the tree-hugging vegetarian type, but reading it was incredibly disquieting. This probably relates to my reluctance to let go of the belief that we can in fact "plant a tree" and the problems we have created for ourselves will just go away. Ugh.

Link to more information about the book:
http://www.bookrags.com/shortguide-rat-grass/socialconcernsthemes.html